FILE - This July 20, 1993 file photo shows Rodney King speaking during an appearance on KFI-AM radio's "Bill Handel and Mark Whitlock" show in Los Angeles. King, the black motorist whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police officers was the touchstone for one of the most destructive race riots in the nation's history, has died, his publicist said Sunday, June 17, 2012. He was 47. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, file)

Rodney King death ruled accidental

•August 23, 2012

Rodney King, whose 1991 videotaped beating made him a symbol of police brutality and racial tension in Los Angeles, was in a drug- and alcohol-induced "delirium" when he accidentally drowned in his pool, coroners ruled on Thursday, August 23.